1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to improvements in heaters for compressed air and more particularly with a self-contained electric heating means to which compressed air is admitted, heated and the moisture removed before it is filtered of impurities and delivered to a point of use.
2. Prior Art and Objects
This invention is an electrical filtered air heater which is an improvement over the air heater disclosed in our U.S. Pat. No. 3,737,626. In its specific aspects, the air heater of the present invention provides a cylindrical shaped housing having upper and lower compartments interconnected by concentric tubes forming passageways for the compressed air. An electric heating unit is positioned within the innermost concentric tube to heat the compressed air. The upper compartment serves as a housing for the thermostatic controls and the like and the lower compartment serves as a reservoir for condensation removed from the air during its passage. The reservoir holds the water when the device is in use and permits it to drain therefrom when the device is not in use. A regulator controls the pressure of the air entering the device and a filter removes any impurities or remaining moisture as the heated air exist the device.
The thermostatic controls maintain the temperature of the air leaving the heater at a preselected valve by controlling the degree of energization of the heating unit. As a result of the novel improvements in the present air heater over the disclosed structure in our aforementioned patent, the present air heater can efficiently handle as much as twelve times the volume of air as our previously patented device.
The main object of the invention is the provision of an electric heater which will produce large volumes of hot, clean dry compressed air to a point of use.
Another object of the invention is the provision of a heating unit for compressed air which is capable of removing and storing a large quantity of condensed moisture removed from the air when the device is in operation and which automatically drains the condensate when the device is not in operation.
It is yet another object to provide such a compressed air heater which is compact and easily mounted in its vertical operating position adjacent the source of compressed air elsewhere.
It is a still further object to provide a compressed air heater which is novel in its construction and relatively inexpensive to manufacture.
The novel features which are believed to be characteristic of the invention, both as to its organization and method of operation, together with further objectives and advantages thereof will be better understood from the following description considered in connection with the accompanying drawing in which a presently preferred embodiment of the invention is illustrated by way of example. It is to be expressly understood however, that the drawing is for the purpose of illustration and description only, and is not intended as a definition of the limits of the invention.